Deal

The stand-off between the Congress and the DMK, DMK buckled down

The DMK is right now caught in some major drama. The whole issue around the 2G scam and the involvement of the DMK Minister A Raja (still defended by the DMK and by Karunanidhi) has brought a lot of unwanted attention to the DMK. The DMK has been angry that the Congress Government in the center has not controlled the CBI, and is worried about the attention that the CBI is now paying to the transactions by Kalaignar TV, and the impending questioning of Karunanidhi’s daughter, Kanimozhi. However, with all the media attention and the direct attention of the Supreme Court, the Congress cannot take any action that would seem to be impeding the progress of the probes being made by the CBI (along with the Enforcement Directorate) (further, after the setbacks over the CVC and case of black money, the Congress is hesitant about being further tarred by any corruption problems).
The DMK is being pushed further due to the rivalry between the family members of Karunanidhi, with Alagiri fighting with Stalin over who will be the heir, and both of them pushing against Kanimozhi because of the Raja connection. This succession battle and rivalry also has a bearing on the pressures within the party. Further, the DMK feels that the AIADMK is getting in a strong position, especially with the tie-ups that Jayalalitha has made. It in this position that the DMK is now weaker.
Read more…

Finally the Congress Government agrees for a JPC, could have taken this action long time back

The whole winter session of Parliament was made useless over the controversy about getting a JPC in place for investigating the 2G scam. The Government was adamant over its refusal, making light of the efforts of the various opposition parties in demanding the JPC; the Prime Minister even claimed that he was ready to answer any queries posed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament. It took some time to puncture that claim, with the PAC finally revealing that forget the Prime Minister, they cannot even call a Minister. All they can do is look at records and call officials (which they have started doing, having interesting meetings where they called the CBI chief, the RBI Governor, and so on – trying to come up with challenges to the front presented by the Government). There was intense speculation that the Prime Minister was evading the JPC since it has the power to question him, and it would be very embarrassing for him to answer the series of questions of why he stood by while A Raja was changing policies to favor a set of corporates and give them a precious natural resource, the 2G spectrum. That Manmohan Singh has no good answers to these questions is very apparent when he gave the interview to newspaper editors and made the acknowledgement that for the sake of keeping the coalition going, there are compromises that need to be made. When the JPC (even one where a Congress MP is the head) asks these questions, what will the PM say ?
So, finally the Congress has accepted that it is far more embarrassing for them if Parliament does not function, especially when the Budget session is underway, and hence the concession by the Government that a JPC will be setup. The opposition parties seemed determined to prevent Parliament from functioning, a rather extreme step, but then in the 2G scam, the Government has only acted when forced to do so.
Read more…

2G spectrum scam and recent developments – Arrest of Raja

The former telecom Minister, Mr. A. Raja was arrested this week in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. In my opinion, It is just too little and too late. In fact the Congress government intention is not to clean up the system, but to make some political points.
The 2G spectrum investigations have been out in the open for more than 2 years now. If you go by the monetary loss incurred by the government, it is the biggest scandal in independent India. Initially the government denied there was a scam. The Supreme Court had to ask some tough questions to the government for it to take notice. Then some of the coalition partners were distancing them self from the government on this. With the winter session of Parliament completely hijacked over the issue, the government had to run for cover. Finally it got rid of its Minister as a concession for the opposition. The case handed over to CBI, and now the minister is finally arrested and has been remanded for further investigation.

With the arrest, the congress made two crucial steps forward politically without affecting its credibility.
1. It utilized the opportunity to prove to the people of India that it is serious on corruption.
2. It positioned itself to a good bargaining position, for any seat sharing agreement for the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections.
Those are clever moves from the Congress high command.
Read more…